house cleaning

Here's a post from our partners at BabyCenter! Every week, we bring you the best parenting and lifestyle stories from the experts at BabyCenter, including this post from Samantha Schoech about the bizarre things moms find around the house.

Anyone who has ever raised kids knows something about finding weird things in weird places. I wrote last year about pulling out my wallet to pay at the grocery store only to have a pair of poopy underwear in a plastic baggy come flying out of my purse. Yay me! Yay motherhood!

But that was my fault. I mean, I wasn't the creator of the poopy undies, but I was the one who stuffed them in my purse and forgot about them. But mostly, my little archeological finds have nothing to do with me. There seems to be some brain malfunction in my children whereby they are unable to remember where they put anything. Shoes are lost daily. Jackets and sweatshirts disappear into the ether. And weird things turn up in weird places all the time. Legos in my shoes are farm league.

Related: 7 fears expectant fathers face

A partial inventory of what I've found lately:

1. A saw in Oliver's bed (along with a handful of clothespins and about 15 hardback books — obviously he's planning an escape.).
2. A coaster filed with nail clippings on a side table in the living room (I know, so disgusting).
3. Four lipsticks in Maggie's bed.
4. An ancient computer keyboard, also in Maggie's bed — so nice to snuggle up to.
5. A bottle of shampoo in the laundry hamper.
6. A pile of sand in the closet.
7. A wad of chewing gum in the back of Oliver's hair. (He has epically thick hair. God only knows how long it had been there.)
8. A lovely orange parasol in the chicken coop.
9. A Tupperware filled with crackers in the coat closet.
10. An old, warm yogurt in the toy box (unopened).

Things I am missing and suspect I will someday find in my kids' room:

1. My keys and the remote to my car.
2. All my freelance accounting paperwork from the last year.

What about you? What's the weirdest (or grossest) thing you've found in the weirdest place?

More great reads from BabyCenter:
5 things I swore I'd never do as a mom
Fran Drescher thinks we are poisoning our kids when we breastfeed them
Will kids live longer if we encourage creativity?
Will you intrude on your child's privacy?
The best gender reveal photos!

Sometimes, even when we do our best to destroy germs in our home, they know the right places to hide and fester. Damp environments like bathrooms and kitchens are the perfect places for bacteria to thrive. In order to keep our homes healthy and happy, there are a few common items that should be replaced regularly. Check out the list below to see if it's time for any of your items to get dumped.

• Bath sponges: These have the great honor of potentially spreading mold and bacteria all over your body, so you should wring them out and dry them after each use. Loofahs should be replaced every month because the bacteria can grow in their nooks and crannies easily, but synthetic sponges are more resistant and can last up to eight weeks.
• Kitchen sponges: Cleaning, nuking, and drying out your kitchen sponges between washes will help keep them bacteria-free, but you should throw out heavily used sponges every two weeks, or up to eight weeks for those used less vigorously.
• Toothbrushes: It's always a good idea to toss your toothbrush after you get over a sickness, and in general, replace yours every three months.
• Mattresses: These should be replaced every seven years since any uneven sagging can cause you to have trouble sleeping, not to mention their permanent collection of dust, dirt, and allergens.
• Cutting boards. While there's no set time limit for when to replace your cutting boards, you should toss them if you notice discolored grooves, deep clean them regularly, and don't forget to use a separate one for raw meat!

Source: Flickr User Minimalist Photography